SB Nation Minnesota - Wrestlemania XXVII Results: The Miz and Edge Emerge As Champions

Wrestlemania XXVII: What Happened To The U.S. Title Match?

2011-04-04T03:15:33Z

One of the matches that was supposed to be on tonight's Wrestlemania XXVII card was a United States title match between Daniel Bryan and the current champion, Sheamus. However, that match did not take place during the regular broadcast. So what happened to it?

Well, here's what happened, according to the good folks at Cageside Seats, SB Nation's wrestling site.

Meanwhile, Sheamus-Bryan was moved to the dark match slot as a lumberjack match that turned into the "payoff for everyone" battle royal, which was won by The Great Khali. U.S. Title wasn't on the line.

So, in order to make sure that everyone got a Wrestlemania paycheck, only two titles were defended tonight. . .Edge's World Heavyweight Title, which he retained, and The Miz's WWE Title, which he also retained.

I'm not sure if there's ever been a Wrestlemania where no titles changed hands, but there were no title changes at this one.

Wrestlemania XVII: The Rock Helps The Miz Defeat John Cena

2011-04-04T02:59:48Z

And so we're on to the main event of the evening, as the WWE Championship will be decided between The Miz and John Cena. We get dueling entrances once again, as Miz gets a nice video package to document his rise from reality superstar to WWE Champion, and a big, inflatable "AWESOME" on the stage as he makes his way to the ring.

Not to be outdone, Cena's entrance involves what has to be a church choir of about 100 members, and a video montage of Cena with a prayer being read over the top of it. I'm not sure who's reading the prayer. . .the voice sounds familiar, but I can't place it right now. Holy crap, they're doing a gospel version of "My Time Is Now". . .sort of. But it sounds great, and it segues right into Cena's real entrance music.

Cena apparently has a new shirt and hat, too, this one in red. You know, for those of you that are into that sort of thing. New wristbands and armbands, too.

The announcements are made, and the reaction for Cena is definitely mixed, as is the reaction for The Miz. J.R. informs us that Cena has never lost a one-on-one match at Wrestlemania, and that this is his eighth consecutive Wrestlemania main event.

Miz gains the early advantage, pounding Cena into the corner and hitting his sit-out clothesline. The crowd is astoundingly dead for this one thus far. . .hopefully that will change as things progress.

Miz goes for a second sit-out clothesline into the corner, but Cena gets out of the way, and comes off the top rope with a Rocker Dropper. After a near fall, Cena misses a blind charge into the corner, and The Miz has the advantage again. Big boot to the head gets The Miz another near fall. Cena bounces off of the ropes, goes for. . .something. . .and the Miz ducks it, causing Cena to hit the deck. Miz dropkicks him out of the ring, and hits a running kneelift on the ring apron.

Lawler and J.R. are commenting that Cena seems "addled" and "not quite right." His timing does seem a bit off, but I'm not sure if Cena is legit concussed or what the deal is. Cena gets a bit of a comeback capped off with the Five Knuckle Shuffle, and gets a near fall. Cena goes for the STF after a drop toe hold, and Miz kicks him away, following up with a backbreaker/neckbreaker combo.

(I found out what happened to the Sheamus/Daniel Bryan match. More on that later.)

Back in the ring, Cena has the STF locked on to the Miz, but The Miz gets to the ropes. Alex Riley manages to drive Cena's head into an exposed turnbuckle, and Miz follows that up with the Skull Crushing Finale, but Cena manages to kick out at two. Cena and Miz both run into the referee, knocking him out, and Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on The Miz, but the referee is nowhere to be found. Cena gets up, figures out what's going on, but doesn't see Alex Riley waiting for him with the metal briefcase, and he gets waffled upside the head as a result. Miz covers, and gets a near fall as Cena kicks out.

Miz now picks up the briefcase, and hits Alex Riley with it. . .well, actually, Miz sort of threw it at Riley, but Riley sold it like he had been shot. Cena hits another Attitude Adjustment on The Miz, but Miz kicks out before the three count. To the outside we go, and Cena clotheslines The Miz into the timekeeper's area at ringside. Cena then tackles Miz over the security wall, and both men get counted out for a draw. The fans are angry, and make their displeasure known, until. . .

IF YA SMELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. . .WHAT THE ROCK. . .IS COOKIN'!

Rock makes his way down to the ring, and we get another e-mail from the Anonymous Raw General Manager™, which The Rock decides he's going to field rather than letting J.R. do it. The Rock starts reading the e-mail. . .and I quote. . .

"As the Raw General Manager, I think. . .IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!"

Rock gets back into the ring, and after some oration, declares that the match will continue with no disqualifications and no countouts. Cena and Miz make their way back to the ring, puts Miz in position for an Attitude Adjustment, and Miz grabs the rope to counter. Cena then turns around. . .and eats a Rock Bottom from The Rock. Miz crawls over the top of Cena, and gets the three count.

So, does this mean that the Rock is hanging around for a while longer to advance a program with Cena? One would hope so, with the way this match ended. Either way, I'm surprised that Miz retained here, and I'm not sure that this win "legitimizes" him any more or anything like that.

After the match, The Rock remains outside the ring, staring in the ring at The Miz. The Rock charges the ring, attempts to hit The Rock with the belt and misses, and the Rock starts taking it to The Miz. Spinebuster leads into The People's Elbow, and The Rock takes to the turnbuckles to celebrate.

So, he did manage to get both combatants in this one, but in the opposite order I thought he would. . .I thought he'd get Cena after the match rather than during. We'll have to wait until tomorrow night's Raw to see where they go with this one.

Winner: The Miz via pinfall by a Rock Bottom from The Rock on John Cena

Wrestlemania XXVII: Snooki Hits A Handspring Elbow, And I Take A Bathroom Break

2011-04-04T02:24:57Z

Well, after the awesomeness that was the Triple H/Undertaker match, we follow that up with Snooki's appearance, as she teams with Trish Stratus and John Morrison to take on the team of Dolph Ziggler, Layla, and Michelle McCool.

I'll level with you, folks. . .I didn't pay a hell of a lot of attention to this one. I said in the preview that this would be a good time for everyone to take a bathroom break, so I went and made my wife a coffee and microwaved a couple slices of pizza.

I did come back in time to see Snooki hit a fairly impressive. . .relatively speaking. . .handspring elbow onto Michelle McCool, and followed that up with. . .um, something. . .for the pin.

Winner: John Morrison/Trish Stratus/Snooki via the Flying Snooki (or whatever we're going to refer to that as).

And, apparently, the WWE Championship match is up now. . .so I guess that Sheamus and Daniel Bryan have just been cut out of tonight's program. Well, that sort of blows.

Wrestlemania XXVII: WWE Announces Location Of Wrestlemania XXVIII

2011-04-04T02:12:57Z

Next year's Wrestlemania event will be held on April 1, 2012 in Miami, Florida.

No location was specified. . .don't know if they're going to try to fill the Orange Bowl or anything like that, but there's your time and your location.

Make your travel plans accordingly.

Wrestlemania XXVII: The Undertaker Defeats Triple H To Get To 19-0

2011-04-04T02:03:25Z

This one's happening significantly earlier in the card than I thought, too. Why in the heck is this going on before that abomination that Snooki is involved with takes place?

Triple H comes out to the strains of Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls, complete with a bunch of guys carrying shields before the familiar sounds of The Game strike up for the rest of his entrance. Sadly, Triple H only has the second-most awesome entrance music for this one, Metallica or not, because the Undertaker comes out to Johnny Cash's Ain't No Grave, which trumps basically everything.

Still not happy that this one is happening this early in the show. Ah, well, guess I have to get past that.

We get a big ol' brawl to start things out with, resulting in Triple H getting tossed into the steel steps. He then proceeds to pretty much spear The Undertaker through the Cole Mine, which gives us our first zombie sit-up of doom of the evening. Undertaker tries to go for the "Old School" rope walk, but Triple H beals him into the center of the ring. Triple H appears to be favoring his right arm, but I don't know at this point if he's selling or if he's actually hurt. . .I'm betting on the former.

After throwing Taker around outside of the ring, Triple H sets to disassembling the Raw announce table (Undertaker had taken apart the Spanish table on the first sojourn outside of the ring.) Triple H attempts to Pedigree The Undertaker through the table, Undertaker counters into an attempted choke slam, Triple H hits a knee to the gut and goes for the Pedigree again, and Undertaker back drops him from the announce table to the floor.

Triple H is recovering outside the ring, and as he starts to get up, we get LUCHA-TAKER, as The Undertaker hurls himself over the top rope onto a waiting Triple H on the floor, which gets a nice "Holy (censored)" chant going from the crowd. Taker is first to his feet, and he moves the ring steps over next to the partially assembled Spanish announce table. The Undertaker sets Triple H up for a Tombstone on the steel steps, but Triple H counters. Undertaker charges Triple H, who is still standing on the steel stairs, and Triple H turns it into a spinebuster through the Spanish announce table.

Back into the ring we go, and right when it looks like Triple H has the advantage, Taker dials up a choke slam and plants The Game for a near fall. Triple H eventually gets the Taker in a corner. . .and nobody puts Taker in a corner, as he goes for The Last Ride, but Triple H counters out into a Pedigree attempt. Undertaker turns that into Snake Eyes, and goes for the big boot, but Triple H hits another spinebuster to take back the momentum.

Triple H heads outside of the ring for a steel chair, but Undertaker hits a boot to the face before he can make use of it. The Undertaker picks up the chair, and hits a NASTY chair shot to the back of The Game. Undertaker goes for another one, but takes a kick to the gut. . .and Triple H hits the Pedigree for 2 7/8. Triple H sets the Undertaker up on the top rope and goes for a superplex, but Undertaker counters into The Last Ride for a 2 7/8 of his own.

Undertaker picks Triple H up, hits the Tombstone and get the. . .2 and 99/100. Obviously, this displeases the Dead Man, so he grabs the steel chair and sets Triple H up for another Tombstone attempt onto the chair. Triple H counters, and hits a DDT on Taker onto the steel chair. Both men eventually get to their feet, and Triple H hits a second Pedigree, which nets him nothing more than another near fall. Triple H gets up first, hits a third Pedigree, and the Undertaker kicks out again.

(The third Pedigree was terribly botched, but hey. . .not a big deal at this point, I don't think.)

Triple H picks up the steel chair, gets to his feet before the Undertaker, and hits nine nasty chair shots to the back of the Undertaker, and that chair is bent all to hell. Triple H is screaming at The Undertaker to stay down, but Taker struggles back to his feet. . .so Triple H hits him right between the eyes with the chair.

And the Undertaker gets. . .up. . .again.

Triple H continues yelling at the Undertaker to "stay down" and "just die." Triple H gets right up into the Undertaker's face and asks what's wrong with him, and Taker gets his hand around Triple H's throat, but The Game shrugs him off. Triple H mimics The Undertaker's throat slash, picks Taker up, and screams that it's over before he. . .HITS A TOMBSTONE!?

And the Undertaker kicks out. . .again!

So, Triple H heads outside of the ring and goes for Old Faithful. . .his trusty sledgehammer. And, in this match, the sledgehammer is as legal as a headlock. Triple H sets Undertaker up for a sledgehammer shot, and The Undertaker pulls him down and locks in Hell's Gate. Triple H can't get loose, and looks to be fading. Triple H manages to get his hand on the sledgehammer, pick it up. . .and drops it again as Hell's Gate remains locked in. And Triple H taps out! Triple H taps out to the Hell's Gate, and the Undertaker gets to 19-0.

Great, great match. . .maybe not to the level of the matches that Undertaker has had with Shawn Michaels the last two years, but still an outstanding match. In the previews I said this would probably be the match of the night, and I think that's a pretty accurate prediction.

Winner: The Undertaker by submission via Hell's Gate.

After the match, Triple H is able to get to his feet, while Taker lies motionless for a few minutes, and manages to struggle his way out of the ring. After he gets outside of the ropes and onto the floor, he immediately collapses into a heap again, and is unable to get back to his feet. They bring a cart out for the Undertaker, and about four WWE workers help him onto it. The cart goes up the ramp, taking The Undertaker to the backstage area, as we fade to black and one of the WWE's "Don't Try This At Home" announcements.

Creepy ending to this one, but it was a great match. It will be interesting to see how they handle this one on Raw and/or Smackdown.

Wrestlemania XXVII: Jerry Lawler Makes Michael Cole Tap Out

2011-04-04T01:12:14Z

Booker T and Jim Ross were introduced prior to this one as the announcers, with Cole running down J.R. and Jerry Lawler down all the way to the ring. They introduce Jack Swagger, who makes his way down to the ring and starts doing push-ups, and is interrupted by the sound of breaking glass and AUSTIN AUSTIN BAH GAWD AUSTIN makes his way to the ring. Oh, and Austin is on an ATV, which he uses to damn near run over Swagger and chase Michael Cole back into the "Cole Mine."

Cole's wearing an old-school wrestling singlet that looks like an homage to Oakes High School. (Approximately three people that read this are going to catch that reference. Sometimes, I have to do things just for me.) Cole refuses to come out of the "Cole Mine," so Austin says to ring the (censored) bell and tells Lawler to go out and get Cole. Cole offers to shake hands with Lawler, sticking his hand out of one of the holes in the plexiglass that comprises the "Cole Mine," but Lawler pulls him into the plexiglass several times. Eventually, Lawler gets Cole out of the enclosure and throws him into the Raw General Manager podium before tossing him into the ring.

As Lawler was attempting to get into the ring, Swagger jumped him from behind (he had been taken out by Lawler early in the match), and left him vulnerable to a baseball slide (!?) by Cole, after which Swagger applied the ankle lock outside of the ring. Lawler finally gets into the ring, and Cole goes after the ankle. Cole's offense is incredibly weak, and I understand that's by design, but really. . .it's just sad.

Cole eventually puts the strap down on the singlet, Lawler-style, and locks in the. . .ugh. . .An-Cole Lock on Lawler. Lawler, to his credit, is selling it like he's being beaten with a rubber hose, but he eventually managed to kick Cole off of him. Lawler gets the advantage, after which Swagger attempts to throw in the towel on Cole's behalf to stop the match. Austin tells him that he can't do that, Swagger enters the ring to protest, and eats a Stone Cold Stunner for his troubles.

Lawler finally gets well and truly on the offensive, and just starts pummeling Cole with right hands. Lawler hits a dropkick, heads to the second rope, drops the strap, and hits the flying fistdrop. Lawler goes for the pin, Austin gets to a two count. . .and he picks Cole up off the mat. Lawler hits the ankle lock, and Cole immediately starts tapping out. It takes Austin a while to determine that Cole really does want to give up and call for the bell, but he eventually does.

No surprise here. I'm pretty sure everyone in the building thought that Lawler was going to win this one. Swagger carries Cole back to the locker room, as Lawler and Austin share some ice cold adult beverages in the ring. Booker T then makes his way into the ring, celebrates with Austin for a bit, and then hits the Spinaroonie in the middle of the ring, much to Austin and Lawler's delight. . .and then Booker T eats a Stunner, with the accompanying beer spitting effects.

Winner: Jerry Lawler via submission with the ankle lock.

We then get an e-mail from the anonymous Raw General Manager, saying that Austin overstepped his bounds as the referee, and that Lawler has been disqualified.

Winner: Michael Cole via disqualification

Lawler can't believe it, and he takes it out on Josh Matthews, who read the e-mail announcement. Lawler tosses Matthews into the ring, and he eats a Stunner as well. Lawler isn't happy with the result, and quite frankly, neither am I. I have no idea why in the heck they would do the ending that way, and it still doesn't give us any idea who the Raw General Manager is.

Looks like Lawler is taking his seat by J.R. at ringside, so he may announce the rest of the way. . .which is nice, since after the Stunner-a-thon we just witnessed, they're the only two healthy announcers left.

Wrestlemania XXVII: The Rock Meets Pee-Wee Herman

2011-04-04T00:42:00Z

Back in the locker room, Mean Gene Okerlund is expounding to the Rock how great Wrestlemania has been so far, and The Rock says that John Cena's number one fan is coming to confront him. Mean Gene says that he's already there. The camera pans to the right, and we see. . .Pee Wee Herman. Full costume and everything.

Rock tells Pee Wee that he can either be a child on Team Cena, or he can be a man with Team "Bring It." (I know this is a male soap opera, but we don't need this turning into the Twilight movies, for crying out loud.) Pee Wee tells Rock that he wants to join Team "Bring It," and asks if everyone can smell what the Pee is cooking.

Yes, that's what he said. Smell what the Pee is cooking. I wish to God I was making that up.

We now have a brief intermission to recognize this year's Hall of Fame class, emceed by Howard Finkel.

Wrestlemania XXVII: Randy Orton Defeats C.M. Punk

2011-04-04T00:37:07Z

The announcers pointed out at the start of this one that Randy Orton was limping less noticeably than he was last week after C.M. Punk hit him in the knee with a wrench, but his right knee was still heavily taped.

Orton got off to a quick start, taking the fight outside of the ring, but when Orton tried to throw Punk into the steel ringsteps, Punk went up and over the stairs, and then kicked the stairs into Orton's injured knee when the Viper gave chase.

Punk immediately took advantage, pummeling the injured right leg of Orton with a series of moves. Punk went for the Go To Sleep, but Orton countered his way out and attempted to hit the RKO, but Punk countered his way out of that, and Orton was down again. Punk then went to the top rope, took too long, and wound up getting knocked onto the top turnbuckle by Orton. Orton then climbed the ropes and hit Punk with a top-rope superplex that got him a near fall.

Punk went outside the ring to catch his breath, and when Orton gave chase, Punk pulled him onto his back, racking his knee across the steel ring post a couple of times, and even breaking out the Bret Hart-style ringpost figure four to work Orton's knee a little more. Punk continued to assault the right knee of Randy Orton, but a series of headbutts allowed Orton to break free temporarily.

Orton then took to the offense, hitting a couple of clotheslines and a power slam, among other moves. Punk fought back with a series of kicks, and then locked on the Anaconda Vice in the center of the ring. Despite having a bad leg, Orton managed to roll himself and Punk into the ropes, forcing Punk to break the hold.

After getting to his feet, Orton took Punk to the ringpost on the apron, and followed that up with the suspended DDT. He was setting up for the RKO, but relented. . .in favor of attempting to set Punk up for the punt to the head. However, just like this past Monday on Raw, Orton's knee gave out on him, and he was unable to complete the move, crumpling to the mat in a heap. Punk approached Orton, who once again went for the RKO, but Punk countered by pushing Orton off.

Punk went to the top rope for. . .something. . .and as he flew across the ring, Orton got to his feet again and finally hit the RKO for the three-count.

Honestly, I still think Punk could have used the victory more, but Orton winning it isn't too egregious. He conquered the entire new Nexus, and I'm assuming that this closes the book on the Orton/Punk feud. The Super RKO was pretty impressive as well.

Winner: Randy Orton via pinfall after Super RKO